Seven people have reported seeing a ‘big cat’ in three separate incidents in North Cornwall in the past week.

A large, black, ‘Beast of Bodmin’ type creature, has been spotted in St Tudy, Bodmin and Rock by three separate groups of tourists.

Martin Whitehouse, manager of the shop at St Minver Holiday Park, contacted The Herald's sister website Cornwall Live to report two separate sightings.

"An elderly gentleman told me that last night around 6.30pm his daughter and another girl, possibly a friend or sister, saw a big black cat in front of their caravan while on their way back to it," the 55-year-old explained.

Composite image featuring 'Beast of Bodmin' style big cat

"It was higher than the bottom of the caravan, more than two feet high. The animal stopped and looked at them. Then it started walking, didn't run off but slowly slunk off behind the caravan and through the hedge."

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The 79-year-old said: "I returned from a week's stay near the village of St Tudy at the weekend. Coming home from Port Isaac one day in the late afternoon, we were navigating the narrow lanes on the way back to our holiday home, all intently watching where we were going because it was so narrow and winding.

"When we saw the beast we were all taken by surprise. It was not a deer, not a fox, not a dog.

"It was totally black, with a feline shape, but big.

The road to Trevenning Barn, where four people spotted a big cat

"We didn't see its head because it heard us coming and started to go away."

Mrs Fry said that the holidaymakers mentioned the episode to a couple of people, without getting any reply. But when they talked about it the the proprietor of the holiday home, he said that he was not surprised.

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Over the years, similar sightings have been reported and many believe that the creatures' description was matching that of the Beast of Bodmin, a phantom wild cat haunting Bodmin Moor, which was first spotted in 1983.

Three pumas were allegedly released on Dartmoor

Big cat sightings in Plymouth

There have also been numerous sightings of big cats around Plymouth down the years - and Police launched a lion hunt on Dartmoor in November 1998, after a 20-stone big cat was allegedly spotted running along a country lane in the South Hams by a shocked motorist.

Paul Gourley, 42, of Cheston Caravan Park, was driving his van along the Wrangaton Road near South Brent at 9.15am when he said he saw a six-foot-long lion coming towards him.

He said: "He was about 15 yards away when he ran off into a field towards Wrangaton. I think he had just had something to eat - his mane was covered in blood."

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Mr Gourley then asked his wife Ellice, 47, to contact police, saying: "I thought if I reported it people would think I was stupid." Mrs Gourley said: "We had to do something. If someone finds a child eaten someone is going to ask why didn't you report it? We had to say he had seen something for safety's sake.

"Paul looked shocked when he walked in the door and I stood there with my mouth open when I heard."

Police investigating Mr Gourley's sighting located a paw print this morning in the gateway to the field near Shute Cross crossroads.

They also contacted the Sparkwell-based Dartmoor Wildlife Park to ask if any of its lions were on the loose, only to learn they were all accounted for.

The park's lion expert Robin Godbear came to the scene to analyse and take a plaster cast of the paw print.

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He said: "It was very sleek and about the size of an Alsatian. It was like looking at a shadow as it was jet black, as black as you can get.

"It was very powerful looking and its tail was very long too.

"What struck me about its tail was where it hung down its hindquarters it was very long and the same thickness all the way down. It was a perfect bow shape; if you put a piece of string across it, it would look like a strung bow."

He added: "It was watching us and I think we spotted each other at the same time as we were about 50 – 60 yards away.

Steve Swatton's drawing of a panther he saw near Plympton

"Then all of a sudden it disappeared and hopped over a hedge into the scrub land which leads into the forest.

"I ran up there as I thought there might be a chance of seeing it, but it was gone.

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"It was probably more scared of us than us of it. I wasn't that scared at the time but thinking about it now if I had been cornered it could have got a bit nasty, as it probably weighs about 60/70lbs – heavy enough to bring a deer down."

Hoping someone else had seen the animal, Steve got his friend to Google it, and what he found "confirmed" his sighting.

"A picture of this old boy stood in the exact same spot came up," explained Steve, "where he'd also seen the panther."

Keen golfer Hermann Welch claimed he nearly mowed down a wild panther in 2004 after a pack of pumas were allegedly released from Dartmoor Zoo.

The 75-year-old was driving to Welbeck Manor in Sparkwell 12 years ago when a "black panther" leapt from the overgrowth, darted in front of his car and disappeared into woodland on the other side of the road.

However, the Zoo's current owner, Ben Mee, claims a pack of pumas were released during the 1980s and lived on nearby land, terrorising farmers and their livestock while feeding on scraps of rubbish in the village.

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Ms Chipperfield died in 2014 - but her husband, Roger Cawley, has dismissed the claims.

Mr Cawley, who now breeds rare white tigers in Spain, said: "We had no dealings with the old Dartmoor Wildlife Park and certainly never released pumas or any other wild animals on Dartmoor."

However, when The Herald reported Mr Cawley's denial last year, the widow of a delivery driver contacted us to say there had "definitely had been dealings" because: "My late husband picked up pumas from Plymouth Zoo and took one to Dartmoor Wildlife Park."

Driver 'stopped for petrol in Plymouth with live puma in back of pick-up truck'

A puma was once transferred between Plymouth Zoo and Dartmoor Zoo on the back of a pick up truck - and left a petrol pump attendant so terrified he only agreed to fill-up the vehicle if the driver stood guard with a shotgun, the driver's widow has said.

Three pumas were allegedly released on Dartmoor

Pamela James contacted The Herald with this amazing anecdote after reading claims the former owner of Plymouth Zoo, circus legend the late Mary Chipperfield, had - either by accident or by design - released three pumas on to Dartmoor, when they were supposed to be transferred to the zoo at Sparkwell.

This claim was denied by Ms Chipperfield's widower, Roger Cawley, who said: "We had no dealings with the old Dartmoor Wildlife Park and certainly never released pumas or any other wild animals on Dartmoor."

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Mr Cawley's denial prompted Mrs James to to ring The Herald to say that there "definitely had been dealings" because: "My late husband picked up pumas from Plymouth Zoo and took one to Dartmoor Wildlife Park."

Mrs James said her husband Tony, a self employed heating engineer, had been friends with Dartmoor Zoo's then owner, Ellis Daw, since childhood - and would often use his pick-up truck to do odd jobs for Mr Daw, with one particular job proving to be the oddest of the lot...

"It was a bit of a farce," said Mrs James of the incident, which happened around the time Plymouth Zoo closed in 1978.

Giraffes at Plymouth Zoo circa 1975

"My husband was bit apprehensive about it, but he (Mr Daw) said it would be fine because the puma would be in a crate."

However, the wooden crate the puma was stored didn't do much to put her husbands concerns to rest.

"So, he took a shotgun with him," said Mrs James.

"He (Mr Daw) said 'why have you got a shotgun?', and my husband said 'because if it escapes from this crate it's dead.'

"He (Mr Daw) said 'you can't do that - I've paid a lot of money for him'.

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"There used to be a petrol station at Colebrook, and, on his way back from Plymouth Zoo, my husband stopped there to fill-up.

"The petrol pump attendant said he wasn't going to go anywhere near my husband's pick-up, because the puma was growling and crawling at the crate in the back.

"In the end, he got my husband to stand guard with the shotgun while he filled up - all the mechanics came out of the garage and were laughing their heads off."

The puma wasn't the only animal from Plymouth Zoo Mr and Mrs James had fond memories of - as they also got their very own 'Tiger', the name they gave to the German Shepherd dog they adopted, which was the puppy of two of the zoo's guard dogs.

Now living in Tavistock, Pamela lived in Sparkwell with her husband Tony, who sadly passed away five years ago, at the time of the incident.